The Teaching and Cultivation of the French Language in England Part 11

[170] _Life of Anne Boleyn_, in Strickland's _Lives of the Queens of England_, London, 1884, ii. pp. 179, 181.

[171] Ellis, _Orig. Letters_, 2nd series, vol. ii. p. 11. Anne's French spelling is curious and suggests that, like Henry VIII., she learnt French mainly by ear: "Mons. Je antandue par vre lettre que aves envy que tout onnete feme quan je vindre a la courte et ma vertisses que Rene prendra la pein de devisser a vecc moy, de quoy me regoy bien fort de pensser parler a vecc ung personne tante sage et onnete, cela me ferra a voyr plus grante anvy de continuer a parler bene franssais."

[172] A French poem of the time, preserved in MS. and quoted by Rathery, _op. cit._ p. 21, celebrates Anne's French accomplishments--_Traite pour feue dame Anne de Boulant, jadis royne d'Angleterre, l'an 1533_:

"La tellement ses graces amenda Que ne l'eussiez oncques jugee Angloise En ses fachons, ains nave Franchoise.

Elle scavoit bien danser et chanter, Et ses propos sagement agencer, Sonner du luth et d'autres instrumens Pour divertir les tristes pens.e.m.e.ns."

[173] Pub., with English translation, in the _Harleian Miscellany_, vol.

iii., 1745, pp. 52-62.

[174] _Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII._, xv. 179, and xvi. 12.

[175] Ellis, _Orig. letters_, series 1, vol. ii. p. 122.

[176] Strickland, _Lives of the Queens_, 1884, ii. p. 299.

[177] This is the testimony of Girolamo Cordano, a physician and astrologer of Milan who was called upon to exercise his art on the young king of England in 1552. Rye, _England as seen by Foreigners_, pp.

lxviii _sqq._

[178] Strickland, _op. cit._ ii. pp. 477-8.

[179] _Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII._, xvi. No. 1253.

[180] Ellis, _Original Letters_, 3rd series, ii. p. 236.

[181] One of Elizabeth's Italian masters was Baptista Castiglione, a religious refugee in 1557. Elizabeth, however, had acquired some knowledge of Italian before 1544; in that year she addressed a letter in Italian to Queen Katharine Parr (printed in G. Howard's _Lady Jane Grey and her Times_, 1822). Other Italian letters of the queen are published in Green's _Letters of Royal and Ill.u.s.trious Ladies_, 1846.

[182] Account of the Venetian amba.s.sador at the Court of Mary--Michel Giovanni. Rye, _op. cit._ p. 266.

[183] _Memoirs of his own Life, 1549-93_, Bannatyne Club, 1827, p. 125.

Elizabeth's Dutch he p.r.o.nounces "not gud," and later says that neither the King of France nor the Queen of England could speak Dutch (p. 341).

[184] _Memoirs of his own Life, 1549-93_, Bannatyne Club, 1827, p. 117.

[185] J. Nichols, _Progresses of Queen Elizabeth_, 1788-1821, i. p. x.

[186] Rye, _op. cit._ p. 12.

[187] Rye, _op. cit._ p. 104.

[188] The MS. was reproduced in facsimile in 1893. The prayers in French begin thus: "Mon Dieu et mon pere puis qu'il t'a pleu desployer les tresors de ta grande misericorde envers moy ta tres humble servante, m'ayant de bon matin retiree des profonds abismes de l'ignorance naturelle et des superst.i.tions d.a.m.nables pour me faire iouir de ce grand soleil de justice ... etc."

[189] _Lettres_, Amsterdam, 1723, liv. i. p. 5.

[190] An account of the little that is known of Andre's life is given in Gairdner's _Memorials of Henry VII._, pp. viii _et seq._

[191] Of foreign countries, the Netherlands seem to have come next to England in zeal for the study of French, and Germany takes the next place. Countries in which sister Romance tongues were spoken, Italy and Spain, were apparently entirely dependent on practice for learning French.

[192] The printing was completed by Robert Coplande on the 22nd March 1521. The book consists of sixteen leaves of the folio size of the time, in black letter, with signatures A-B in sixes and C in fours. There is a unique copy in the Bodleian.

[193] Bale, _Scriptorum Britanniae Summarium_, 1548, p. 723, and Pits, _Relationes Historicae de rebus Anglicis_, 1619, p. 745, attribute to Barclay a work called _De p.r.o.nuntiatione linguae gallicae_. This suggests that possibly the _Introductory_ was first written in Latin.

[194] Time after time he mentions the usages of different parts of the country, as _piecha_ for _pieca_ in certain districts; _jeo_ and _ceo_ for _je_ and _ce_ in Picard and Gascon; the writing of the names of dignitaries and officers in the plural instead of the singular, as _luy papes de Rome_.

[195] _L'Esclarciss.e.m.e.nt de la langue francoyse_, bk. i. ch. x.x.xv.

[196] "There is a boke which goeth about in this realme, int.i.tled _The Introductory to write and p.r.o.nounce French_, compyled by Alexander Barclay. I suppose it is sufficient to warne the lerner that I have red over that boke at length, and what my opinion is therein it shall well apeare in my boke's self, though I make thereof no further expresse mencion."

[197] Thus the vowel _a_ is sometimes a letter, sometimes a word. In the former case it is often sounded like English _a_; when it is a word _d_ should not be added. This section of the work is reprinted in A. J.

Ellis's _Early English p.r.o.nunciation_, Early Engl. Text Soc., 1869, etc., pt. iii. pp. 804 _sqq._

[198] On the back of folio 5.

[199] "Howsoever the singular number end, the plural number must end in _s_ or _z_." Such is the rule for the formation of the plural. As for the genders, he gives a few isolated examples and converts them into rules.

[200] On folio 8v.

[201] Folios 9-14. The vocabulary begins with the letter M, and after proceeding to the end of the alphabet, resumes at the beginning--an arrangement probably due to some blunder on the part of the printer.

[202] Both deal with agricultural subjects; the first gives the life of a grain of wheat, and the second may explain itself:

"Dieu sauve la charue, G.o.d save the ploughe, Et celui qui la mane.

And he the whiche it ledeth.

Primierement hairois la terre, Firste ere the grounde, Apres semer le ble ou l'orge.

After sow the whete or barley.

Les herces doivent venir apres, The harrowes must come after, Le chaclir oster l'ordure.

The hoke to take away wedes, En Aoust le foyer ou faucher, In August reap it or mowe it, D'une faucille ou d'une faux."

There is no English rendering of the last line.

[203] In the Library of the Marquis of Bath.

[204] The Earl was born in 1516.

[205] Ellis, _Orig. Letters_, 1st series, i. pp. 341-43.

[206] _Description des royaulmes d'Angleterre et d'Escosse_, Paris, 1558.

[207] C. H. and T. Cooper, _Athenae Cantabrigienses_, vol. i., 1858, p.

155.

[208] _List of Denizations, 1509-1603_, Huguenot Society Publications VIII.

[209] _Athenae Cantab._ _ut supra_.

[210] S. R. Maitland, _List of some of the early printed books in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth_, 1843, pp. 290 _et seq._